The invention relates to a door for shower enclosures.
Showers or shower areas, if they are integrated in larger rooms such as bathrooms and the like and if the showers are not mounted in their own closed spaces, typically requiring enclosures to prevent the shower water (wastewater and splashing water) from entering the room around it. Depending on whether the shower enclosure is disposed out in the open in the room, or in the corner of a room, or in some especially partitioned-off portion of the room, either only one entry, in the form of a door, or in addition one or more fixed partitions, are needed.
The doors most often used for such shower enclosures are sliding doors, which comprise two or more parts (panels) disposed in separate guides in frame profiles one in front of the other; the frame profiles extend horizontally on the bottom or on the upper edge of the tub or shower pan on the one end and on the upper end of the shower enclosure on the other. These sliding doors have the disadvantage on the one hand that they allow only a relatively narrow entry space for the user. This is specifically true for two-part sliding doors. In closing doors with three and more parts, although there is a wider entrance space, nevertheless the construction expense for the additional door portions with the necessary guides in the frame profiles is considerably greater. In all forms of these sliding doors for shower enclosures, there is also the disadvantage that relatively complicated and expensive measures are needed for adequate sealing, specifically in the regions of overlap of the individual sliding door portions, and also for reliably diverting the water flowing down the door in the region of the lower frame profile. Another disadvantage is that all these sliding door constructions and thus the corresponding shower enclosures are highly unsatisfactory overall from an esthetic or design standpoint.
As an alternative, it is known to provide the entrance area of the shower enclosure with wing-type doors, which depending on the embodiment of the shower enclosure are mounted by means of hinges on vertical profiles along the lateral outer wall or on corresponding corner profiles of the shower enclosure, at the transition to the outer wall or walls thereof, and which either overlap one another or abut one another flush by their inner ends when closed. These wing-type doors do avoid disadvantages of the above-discussed sliding doors, because they require no frame profiles for guiding and securing the sliding doors and at the same time thereby enable more-satisfactory designing of the shower enclosures. However, in addition to the problem that they also have of adequate sealing in the region of the overlap or abutment of the two door panels of the wing-type door, they have the disadvantage that the user must separately open or close both parts of the door in order to enter the shower area or leave it. If he opens only one of the wing doors, then typically the passage is even narrower than in sliding doors. Another disadvantage is that because the two door panels are opened in opposite directions, then when both of them are opened, water that is on the insides of the doors after a shower then runs or drips from not merely one side but both sides into the outer room.
Finally, it is known to mount a unit-type door in shower enclosures that extends over the full width of the entrance side, or at least the predominant portion thereof. It is likewise mounted by hinges to a vertical profile on a lateral outer wall of the shower area or on a corresponding corner profile of the shower enclosure at the transition to the adjoining outer wall, and it opens into the room in front of the shower area. This embodiment does allow unhindered access and exit, and the user needs to open only one door leaf. Moreover, in this embodiment retaining and guide profiles are unnecessary; in addition, an esthetically satisfactory design of the shower enclosures is also possible. However, the considerable disadvantage arises that the wide door on being opened swings all the way into the room in front of the shower area, and thus a corresponding amount of free space must be left available. Pivoting of the door to the inside, for instance, is typically not an option, since the door would sweep over the greater majority of the inside surface area of the shower enclosure and the shower area and would thus be a hindrance both when the user enters and exits, and while the user is in the shower. Another disadvantage of this embodiment is that when the door is opened into the room, water adhering to the relatively large door surface drips or flows into the room from the full width of the door. Moreover, there is the structural problem of torsion of the door leaf, which when the usual hinges are used in this known embodiment requires the use of torsionally rigid door leaves, but even then does not satisfactorily solve the problem.
Finally, from German Utility Model DE-G 92 03 008.4, a door for shower enclosures is known which a frame as a supporting skeleton with support arms that are connected in an articulated manner by one end to the horizontally extending frame parts and by their opposite ends via roller bearings are displaceable in fixed upper and lower guide rails in the entry and exit region of the shower enclosure. Thus the door can be displaced inward toward an adjacent outside of the shower area. With this construction, it is admittedly accomplished that the user of the shower has the great majority of the door side of the shower enclosure available for entry and exit. The disadvantage of the above embodiment that the door after the shower is used extends with its full surface into the room with the splashed water adhering to it so that the water still unintentionally drips off or runs down, is avoided. On the other hand, the disadvantage arises then when the door is pivoted or slid inward, a large portion of the shower area is swept, which at least considerably limits the freedom of motion of the user on closing the door after entering and equally limits it when he exits. The disadvantage of the requisite guide rail as in the sliding door constructions still remains as well, and requires roller bearings in addition. Above all, additional components in the form of the cantilevered arms and their upper and lower connections to the door frame and to the guide rails are also necessary. Reliable guidance and an avoidance of warping or seizing of the door are possible, if at all, only at considerable effort and expense. Finally, the esthetic appearance of a shower enclosure with this kind of door construction is extremely unsatisfactory.